‘The games must stop IMMEDIATELY’ Greek PM blasts EU austerity demands
GREEK Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras warned the "games must stop immediately" following a meeting with the EU's Donald Tusk over his nation's ongoing debt crisis.
Donald Tusk bullish deal can be reached with Greece
The prime minister said it was "high time the games were ended" as he discussed Greece's bailout agreements with Brussels in a joint press conference with European Council President Mr Tusk.
Ahead of a eurozone finance ministers meeting in Malta on Friday, Mr Tsipras said: "We kept getting good news and then just before the end we saw that some would try to carry goal post further down.
"This is not a game, this concerns the future of our people.
"Irrational demands were placed on table a year and a half ago."
But Mr Tsipras said he was "absolutely confident" Greece would reach its targets and the "final fiscal result would be zero".
And added: "We cannot endanger the prosperity and unity of the EU especially at this critical time."
Mr Tusk also took a more concilitary tone, insisting it was not in the EU's best interests to "punish Greece".
He said: "One thing must be clear - no one is interested in punishing Greece. Our only goal is to help Greece.
"We don’t need any kind of other measures or instruments to punish our partners. We only have good intentions."
The EU boss admitted the EU bailout measures were "painful", but only intended to helo Greece "grow".
He added: "The finance minister should do very well to achieve an agreement and a positive result for Greece and for the whole community.
"I am really happy that today ourr PM can demonstrate optimism rather than scepticism."
Ahead of the meeting, Mr Tusk met President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and tweeted a picture of the pair to his 480,000 plus Twitter followers.
His remarks come amid repeated warnings from Brussels officials over Greece's attempts to claw back the debt-ridden country from the depths of financial ruin.
German Federal Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble accused the stricken Mediterranean country of shirking its responsibility to turn its economy around.
Mr Tsipras is in a race against time to prove to the European Union that he is capable of turning the country’s capital markets to profit while keeping to his commitments on €86billion in loans.